Field orientation at Serpent Mound on August 24, 2003? by Red Collie

Field orientation at Serpent Mound on August 24, 2003?

A long series of serpentine-like crop pictures have appeared in recent years, which seem highly relevant to understanding the strange nature of this phenomenon. Many show the traditional "feathered serpent" motif for Quetzalcoatl, a legendary teacher and spiritual instructor from central America 2000 years ago. He was famous all throughout south, central and north America under different names: Quetzal, Kukulcan, Viracocha, Pahana, Awanyu, Lord of the Dawn, etc.

Indeed, it seems quite plausible that the native American people who built Serpent Mound in modern-day Ohio did so as a specific cultural reference to Quetzalcoatl. He was their folk hero, and one of his symbols was that of a "snake". Just to confirm that hypothesis, a schematic version of Serpent Mound appeared in crops in England near Barbary Castle on August 5, 1999, close to where the new "pi to ten digits" crop picture appeared on June 1, 2008 (see HERE or HERE). Furthermore, Serpent Mound itself, as a great earthwork, seems to be field oriented so that its "neck" points northwest to sunset on the summer solstice at that latitude (see HERE or HERE)

Thus it was of some interest that a rare American crop picture appeared near Serpent Mound on August 24, 2003 (see HERE). That picture showed an internal "pointer" (just like at East Field on July 9, 2008), thereby suggesting that it could be pointing on the horizon to some bright astronomical object, that could be seen by standing in the crop picture itself:

There was even a "double circle" placed within the Serpent Mound crop picture, to further suggest that it might be pointing to something. Douglas McIlwain, President of the American Society of Dowsers, noted: "A strange design was found in a soybean field across from the entrance to the Serpent Mound. I believe that crop design is pointing towards Serpent Mound, either towards the head or tail of the effigy" (see HERE). For that reason, in my previous study of serpentine motifs, I tried to assess: (a) where the 2003 Serpent Mound crop picture might be pointing on the horizon, from a study of posted photographs; and (b) what relation might that symbolic crop imagery have to the real Serpent Mound nearby?

Jeffrey Wilson has recently (and with much rhetoric) disputed my indirect assessment of such posted photographs. Yet the precise nature of its field orientation, and location relative to Serpent Mound nearby, still do not seem clear from what he has written. If those data could in the near future be made available in a factual, objective form to researchers worldwide, then we would all be grateful to re-assess the astronomical meaning of that crop picture, and its relation to Serpent Mound, in the light of improved factual information?

This has been an ongoing problem throughout 2008, since probably half of all new crop pictures contain "field orientation" as an essential part of their meaning, yet none is usually provided by the local researchers who photograph those pictures, Often we can use Google Earth to field orient a picture relative to nearby landmarks, say to within 5 degrees. But that is not always possible: for example in the case of Serpent Mound from August 24, 2003, or in the more important case of East Field from July 9, 2008 (which still remains unexplained). I hope that in the near future, field orientation as well as a precise latitude-longitude will become standard in the reporting of every crop picture.

PS Many thanks to Roger Sugden for the 2003 photograph, or to Gary King for the 2008 photograph.

RED COLLIE

PSS In the slide shown by Jeffrey Wilson, a large red arrow that was placed just above the spiral tail of Serpent Mound clearly points "due West to equinox sunset" (as stated there). It has no direct relevance to field location or orientation of any nearby crop picture. In other words, the only substantive issue concerns field orientation of that 2003 crop picture. Once reported accurately, such new data may perhaps lead to a more insightful understanding of what those crop artists were trying to tell us.